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Battlefield 3 Beta Interview

Who better to speak to about the issues arising from the recent Battlefield 3 beta than the game's Lead Multiplayer Designer, Lars Gustavsson. After pumping dozens of hours into the beta we had plenty of questions for him during yesterday's Australian Battlefield 3 event. Where's the VOIP and joystick support? Will bullet damage be altered? Can we set up our own squads? Why are jet campers such douchebags? Lars answered all of these, and more.

GameSpy: The beta didn't work well with joysticks or control pads. What level of support for these devices will the game ship with? Will pilots be able to fly with a stick or pad?

Lars: It's something we're looking into. It looks like we will be able to ship with joystick support, but I've been on the road for quite some time so I can't guarantee it. But yes, if it doesn't turn up at launch, it will definitely be a high priority as soon as possible after shipping. The work being done to support joysticks is more or less the same as control pads, if you get one, you get the other. It's something we're aware of now that we've brought back the jets. It's on the list.

Watch IGN's exclusive video of two new non-beta maps in action

GameSpy: The beta didn't support in-game VOIP; players had to form a party through battlelog to be able to chat just to their party. Will Battlefield 3 include in-game VOIP – be it squad or team based – at launch?

Lars: No, on PC this (battlelog) is what we're going to ship with. Then we're going to evaluate how we move forward with this. It's something we've heard from the community, it's something we understand. At the same time, building a game of this size, you can't win all of the battles. The convenience of going in with friends with your party VOIP channel and keep it even after the game, is definitely a strength. That's just the start – we can definitely evolve from there down the road.

GameSpy: We've heard there's going to be a command rose at launch for PC. Is that still going to be ready for launch? What sort of functionality might it include?

Lars: It is on our list for trying to get in there at launch. It is the usual things that you can really miss on the battlefield. Bail out is a typical one; you're sitting in a helicopter and you realize that you want to attack the flag, and there's no way to tell you're buddy that you're going to bail out.

GameSpy: What about ammo, medpacks, that sort of stuff?

Lars: We have the context system today, but it was buggy in the open beta. We've been hammering it to get it right.

GameSpy: There's been some feedback that some people found bullet damage too strong in the beta. Any plans to tweak it?

"...a lot of the issues that people have raised have already been fixed."

Lars: We've done a lot of tweaking and tuning, everyone needs to understand that the beta was early code. Everything from hit detection to damage, flashlights that people have been mentioning – a lot of the issues that people have raised have already been fixed.

GameSpy: Are you toning the flashlights down a bit?

Lars: Yeah, they should be much better at release.

GameSpy: What level of squad control will the release have? In the beta you couldn't form a squad, join a specific squad or lock a squad so it's just you and friends – will the final release be different?

Lars: At release you'll be able to invite friends, join squads, all the stuff that you need to be able to play with your friends. Getting into the server and seeing your friend, but not being able to play with them, is nothing but frustrating.

GameSpy: A lot of the oldschool, hardcore Battlefield players are asking for an advanced flight model option for choppers and jets – any chance you'll consider this requests?

Lars: For now we're leaving them the way they are, and will let the game live for a little while, then start the communication with the community to see where we stand.

Two more loooong weeks to go.

GameSpy: The PC version looks quite different to the console versions. Do you think there will be any critical backlash from console gamers? Most of the marketing material is very PC focused, so they might be expecting something different to what they end up getting?

Lars: I don't think so. Most gamers do realize that the consoles are five years old, and if someone buys new SLI cards for their monster PC, there will be something extra for the PC. If we kept everything on console level for those PC players, then they would rightfully strangle us! I do think we have managed to push the boundaries of the consoles to a level where I feel we've passed the competition. That's all you can ask out of the team at this point.

GameSpy: Do you think building for PC first and foremost will give DICE a headstart when it comes to developing an engine for the next gen consoles? You'll be adept at multicore, multi-GPU and DirectX 11, where many other companies won't?

Lars: The main focus has been to build a game. Of course we have the technical thinking behind it, but we've been leading with console for quite some time now and it was time to turn it around to refresh all of our knowledge on previous titles. But yeah, the Frostbite 2.0 engine has been built to – as far as we possibly can – prepare for a modular approach to whatever may come in the future.

Including Caspian Border in the beta was a wise move.

GameSpy: Do you think it will give you an advantage over other developers who are sticking with the old hardware?

Lars: We hope so. I think it's been a very mature move from Dice to invest in this new engine that allows us to keep on cramming more stuff out of these machines, otherwise we start to stall. I also think that's something that, to me, sticks out with Battlefield 3. It is a fresh take on an otherwise quite stale shooter market. We're trying to do a lot of things that no one has done before. Animation has stayed the same for ages, now we've revolutionized animation in shooters. We keep on pushing the boundaries for scale, for destruction.

"It's really gold for us to get this insight from the community."

GameSpy: What's the biggest lesson you got from the beta – were there any breakthroughs, or a collection of smaller insights?

Lars: For us it's validating and solving problems with the backend servers. Validating that it all worked to ensure we have a really good launch. In addition to that getting the audience's eyes on battlelog, having them try it out, even though it's rough code still. It's really gold for us to get this insight from the community. Yes, they're loud sometimes, and very passionate about it, but I'd rather have them loud and passionate than not talking to us at all. So I see that as a sign of investment.

GameSpy: When Bad Company 2 came out there were lots of issues with the server browser for the first few days. Do you think your beta testing will ensure that everything will work well on Day 1? Are you confident of a perfect launch?

Lars: That is the intention of course. I am much more confident than before the open beta. It's like when you do a parachute jump – you can only fold your parachute so many times. For every game we get more experienced, and we've definitely done the best we can, far beyond what we've ever done before, to make this a successful launch. Of course, if numbers go totally bananas, there's always areas that you can't predict. If that happens then those are luxury problems.

Spy Guy says: Enough with the Battlefield 3 articles already! (We'd love to cover Modern Warfare 3, but we can't get any COD love yet - Ed) The sooner this damn game arrives, the sooner I can stop reading all about it and start enjoying it. The anticipation is freakin' killing me!